Trouble And Strafe: IL-2 Sturmovik Sequel Announced

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I would have written this post a great deal more quickly but I accidentally got Stoned while doing a quick spot of research. Fear not – nobody’s been pelting me with rocks and I haven’t decided that the only way to write about flight sims is in a herbal haze. I did make the mistake of checking the writings of Tim Stone in historical Flare Path briefings and that was, as ever, like entering a world of exciting things that I know so little about. Did you know that pilots in WWI flight sim, Rise of Flight, have sidearms in the cockpit with them? 777 Studios were behind that game and 1C have handed them development duties on the WWII Eastern Front sequel.

Without original air-machine maestro Oleg Maddox, IL-2 might be considered a follow-up in name and setting rather than spirit. Jason Williams, President of 777, has this to say:

“The 777 Studios team is very excited to be partnering with such a publisher and developer like 1C. Their passion and support for PC combat flight-simulation as well as historical warfare titles has always been a blessing to these genres and we look forward to producing an excellent product for the Sturmovik legacy and continuing to bring additional content to our existing Rise of Flight product line.”

The initial release, not expected until 2014, will focus on the Battle of Stalingrad and “will include both single-player and multi-player scenarios for virtual pilots to enjoy as well as brand new gameplay modes…add-on content and additional features and theatres [will] follow.”

54 Comments

CloD was pretty crap at release, and still isn’t a very good sim. 777, on the other hand, have proven that they’re capable of building a sim with some measure of character and a great deal of competence.

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I wonder if they will use the old engine for this or the Rise of Flight one (probably unlikely, since the Maddox team has already done a great deal of work on the Stalingrad sequel). Also I am worried if the RoF development will stagnate because of this.

They’re switching to the RoF engine per the FAQ on the forums over there, and they’ve promised that at least the stuff already announced for RoF (Channel map, seaplanes, two early-war scouts) will be finished by early 2013.

I’m pretty sure RoF is developed by a Russian studio. 777 (of the USA) began by distributing it, and seem to have taken a more active role. I certainly used to get RoF update emails in English and Cyrillic Russian, which was always quite entertaining.

Same here with Dawn Patrol, oddly, and on the Amiga (all bow). Capriccio Italien was a perfect choice of music for that. It’s pretty much what I remember best about it, for some reason.

Never could get into IL2. It needed less stupidly designed tutorials and some practice modes, and a simple custom mission builder for mucking around in while you got the hang of the controls and physics and that. Trying to get a feel for even a single plane was just way too tedious and frustrating.

It’s been ages since I played it, but it wasn’t possible to set up a simple training thing, to practice strafing or divebombing etc, without first having to faff around taking off and chasing down the target for ten minutes. That’s fine for a proper mission or campaign, but tiresome and pointless when you just want to practice a particular skill.

I’m afraid I must disagree. While IL-2’s interface was quite lacking, it was quite trivial to load up the quick mission builder and be dog-fighting and strafing and what have you in no time at all. QMB missions would always start you off in the air, so none of that “faffing around” taking off stuff to worry about.

RoF great multiplayer..but for a single player WW1 experience you can’t beat Over Flanders Field and with Wings Over Flanders Field due out most likely next year I will be in WW1 heaven…

ROF has great planes and feeling of flight..bu lacks immersion in the outside world..infact to me it looks to clean and cartoon like..where as OFF you are flying above a WW1 battlefield with a whole war going on around and below you..it also has far more dramatic and gritty scene’.

If you want to fly a WW1 plane buy RoF, if you want to fly a plane in WW1 buy WOFF (when it comes out).

The RoF campaign isn’t dynamic in the sense of a changing battlefield. The front lines are just a static snapshot of the late war period, and your missions don’t have any lasting impact; they’re just random missions. Aerodrome locations can change, but not the overall battlefield. So the focus is more on pilot career progression — racking up kills, eventually being able to command a flight group, getting new planes to fly (if you live long enough), and so on. There are user-made missions and at least one alternative scripted campaign that livens things up a bit, outside the stock campaign mode.

It feels a bit dry, but it can still be fun if you bring some role-playing into it, like caring whether your squad mates live or die. Mine never live long….

I so want to get into combat flight sims, and even own IL-2 1946, but the barrier to entry that is a proper HOTAS setup just keeps me away. I don’t want to spend $100+ on something that will get used for one or two games. Well, that and the fact that every time I try to fire up IL-2 I end up spending half an hour taking off, flying to my objective zone, and having nothing to shoot at. Maybe I’m just impatient, or I’m doing something wrong, but I miss the old days of flight sims where I was basically thrown into the fight right away. I loved me some Aces over Europe when I was a kid, and all I had back then was a 3-button joystick to play it with. The same joystick was also used to play X-Wing.

many may disagree, but try ‘Wings Of Prey’
its fairly scalable between arcade ezmode and something a bit more involved. its no IL2, but far more accessible if you just want to get into it.
You can turn takeoff/landings off to get into the action quicker (though imo thats a bit too far..)

Actually quite enjoyed Wings of Prey, and I am a seasoned sim veteran. The campaigns were nicely done, graphics good, and decent flight modelling. Definitely a game I would recommend for a solid 20-25 hours of gameplay. Certainly does not have the immense replay value of IL-2, but is a good sim that stands on its own if you can pick it up for cheap (which it frequently is).

You don’t need an expensive HOTAS setup to enjoy IL-2, spent hundreds of hours on the game with a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, and many more with the Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X. The difficulty can be easily changed across several parameters to suit anyone’s level of experience. Also, the time compression makes the calm before the storm during missions pass considerably faster.

Just spend $30-$40 on one of the above flight sticks (prefer the Logitech myself), and you should be good to go. IL-2 1946, with the dozens of mods out there on top of the base game, is simply the best all-around WWII flight sim out there, and is quite easy to pick up if you gradually scale the difficulty level to suit your experience.

I’ve actually got that Thrustmaster HOTAS X, I bought it when I bought Wings of Prey for my PS3, but I’ve never cared for it. Specifically, I don’t care for the throttle. It seems to handle as though it’s an all-or-nothing switch rather than an actual throttle. Maybe I’m missing some software or something, but it just didn’t seem to work right when I tried hooking it up to my pc to use with IL-2. Oh, and the USB cable was too short. The rudder buttons on the back(front?) of the throttle were a nice touch though. I found the idea of them neat, even though I never really used the things much.

I’d looked at the Saitek X52, as I knew a guy a few years ago who had one and loved it, but as I said I can’t really justify spending $100 on a controller for a single game. And yet I dream of building a full cockpit around the Thrustmaster Warthog because I wish I could afford it and it would just be 100% awesome.

I use a Thrustmaster TFlight HOTAS on wings of prey (PC) and Birds of Steel (PS3) and it works great

if you go into control settings theres a ‘layout’ button with a bunch of predefined configs for various sticks.
theres also a ‘flightstick throttle’ option for proper throttle axis rather than one button to speed up and one to slow down.

on a semi ralated note, I also use my PS3 eye webcam on PC with a bit of software called ‘FaceTrackNOIR’ which does kinect style headtracking so I can look around the cockpit by using my head. It makes a sim FAR more immersive this way!

You’ve probably got it set up wrong. I have the Thrustmaster and the throttle works perfectly (it’s gradual too, not on/off). You probably have it bound to the wrong key or something. You have to make sure you have it bound to the HOTAS throttle controls and not the other throttle controls (the non-HOTAS ones). They’re at the bottom of the controls.

Regardless of what’s causing your problems, it’s worth it to work through it and get it resolved so you can play the game (go post on IL2 forums I’m sure they could figure out what specifically is wrong with your setup). IL-2 1946 is simply the best WW2 sim ever and still has an active online community for it. Peak hours will see ~350 online.

Make sure you grab Hyperlobby though, it’s what everyone uses to play online. Also you might want to pick up HSFX mod too which is used on several of the most popular servers and enhances the game quite a bit.

There are “action” servers that have you jumping into the fight almost immediately if that’s what you want, as well as the more hardcore “full real” ones that have you having to use your instruments and with longer trips to the frontline.

You don’t need a ridiculously expensive HOTAS getup for something like IL-2 or Rise of Flight- I think most people would recommend a buying a simple $30 budget stick like the Logitech 3D Pro.

If you’re still having fun down the line and you feel like spending more money, get a TrackIR or make a Freetrack setup. Freetrack/TrackIR makes a world of difference in flight sims, especially in combat sims where situational awareness is critical. It’s probably the most significant upgrade you could ever make.

CH gear is very well-made, it will last for years. I used a CH Fighterstick, throttle, and pedals for a long time before finally upgrading to a Thrustmaster Warthog setup, which is very expensive, but a big jump in quality for the “serious simmer” market. The CH Products line of joysticks, throttles, and pedals is a great middle-market choice.

I’d advise against getting anything too cheap. The entry-level plastic stuff usually doesn’t last very long, especially if you’re thrashing around in a combat sim..

If you get a stick for flying IL-2 and want to try some space fighter action, there is joystick support in Freespace Open, which is a high-res reworking of Freespace 2. There are even Linux and Mac versions. Details here:

I’d love a new WWII air combat sim, but I wish there was another option instead of 777 tackling this project. Based on their history with RoF, I’m sure the flight models and combat mechanics will be good, but that shop doesn’t seem to be very good at developing single player campaigns.

RoF started as basically a study sim for the plane models. The campaign took them a long time to develop, and it still has problems with enemy and friendly AI behavior and a lackluster environment (i.e. not much happening on the ground, a static front line for the entire war, etc.). The new Channel Map will be a nice addition, but I get the feeling that was mainly an excuse to sell new seaplane models. It would have been nice to see more development of the main campaign, by bringing more life and immersion to the front lines and the careers. I hope they can do better with single player campaigns for this new IL-2 project.

Absolutely loved the original, didn’t play the sequels because as other said they were complete tosh. So hopefully this will be a return to excellent flying(mainly being rubbish at flying and so crashing) times.

Yes, there’s a tutorial. There are missions and then there’s the “dynamic” campaign generator too.

You can also quickly set up something akin to a skirmish – my particular favourite was three Dr.Is, three DVIIF’s and three pfalz DXII against three SPAD XIII, three SE5a and three Camels. Start at 3,000 feet, facing head to head with a mile of separation and… enjoy the madness.

You can easily set up a single flight that starts on the ground or in the air, close to the enemy, with or without wingmen, and so on. There are also guided tutorial missions for things like bombing and strafing ground targets, although they can be a little frustrating to complete until you get the hang of it.

The best way to begin, is just to set up a single flight starting on the ground with no enemy pilots, so you can get familiar with the flight and view controls, basic takeoff and landings, etc.

I’ve spent hours just zooming around the countryside with no other planes selected for that flight, getting the feel of the different models without having to worry about getting shot at. Some of the planes are dead easy to fly (inline engines, later/faster stuff like the Fokker D.VIIf), and some are very difficult to master like the Camel, so it’s nice that there’s a free flight mode like this.